Bicam pushing P90 billion fund for health workers’ SRA in 2022 budget – Yap

Official seals of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

MANILA, Philippines– The bicameral conference committee is pushing to allocate at least P90 billion in the 2022 national budget to cover the special risk allowance (SRA) of healthcare workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, House appropriations committee chairman Eric Yap said Monday.

Yap’s pronouncement comes as some members of the Senate and the House of Representatives kicked off the bicameral deliberations on the proposed 2022 national budget.

“Malaki ang ilalagay natin sa SRA kasi nga ‘yung DOH (Department of Health) parang hindi sila naglagay ng SRA doon sa NEP (National Expenditure Program) eh so kailangan naming lagyan ‘yung SRA kasi marami pong health workers natin ang umaasa dito,” Yap said in an interview with reporters.

(We would allocate a huge amount to the SRA because the DOH seemingly did not include it in the NEP so we need to allocate funds for SRA because many health workers are relying on this.)

READ: Senate, House kick off bicam on 2022 national budget

“Sa amin [sa House], may nilagay kami sa unprogrammed pero hopefully, dapat umabot siya ng P90 billion sa programmed, ‘yun ‘yung target namin,” he added.

(For us in the House, we allocated funds for it under unprogrammed funds but hopefully, it could reach P90 billion under programmed funds.)

Yap expressed hopes that the bicam-approved version of the 2022 national budget can be ratified by both legislative chambers by next week and so that President Rodrigo Duterte could sign it into law before Christmas.

KGA